ALMS: Peugeot wins rained out Petit Le Mans race in Road Atlanta

From the American Le Mans Series

Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin gave Peugeot its first American Le Mans Series victory on Friday, winning a weather-shortened 12th annual Petit Le Mans.

Race officials, citing hazardous conditions due to torrential rains that fell at Road Atlanta just past the four-hour mark, called the race at eight hours, 44 minutes running.

Peugeot’s two diesel-powered factory prototype coupes finished 1-2 with the pole-sitting 908 HDi of Pedro Lamy and Nic Minassian in second.

The first of Audi Sport Team Joest’s Audi R15 TDIs, the car driven by Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, placed third.

McNish and Capello dominated the race before the rains fell. The two Peugeots got past McNish under yellow when the Scot looped the Audi under wet conditions barely past the two-hour mark. A few minutes later, the skies opened and officials parked the cars in pitlane.

The highly anticipated battle between the Peugeots and the Audis lived up to expectations in qualifying and the early part of the race. Both Montagny and Sarrazin had to fight back from a lap down on more than one occasion after the Peugeots’ early race setup struggles.

Dyson Racing took its first Petit Le Mans victory with a victory in LMP2 for Marino Franchitti, Butch Leitzinger and Ben Devlin. 

Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz experienced steering issues throughout, but, nevertheless, the duo completed enough laps to clinch the team championship for Lowe’s Fernandez and the manufacturer championships for Acura.

An early change to wet tires enabled Risi Competizione to repeat as GT2 winners at Road Atlanta and stay alive in the class championship.

Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo won  in their Ferrari F430 GT, the fifth straight endurance victory for the team. They are now 19 points behind the Flying Lizard Motorsports’ duo of Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister with a maximum of 25 points remaining.

A brilliant call by Salo to take wet tires before the rest of the GT2 field proved to be the difference, and it took him six laps to move the Ferrari past the five cars in front of him to take the lead for good.

BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s Dirk Müller, Jörg Müller and Tommy Milner placed second in their BMW M3.

Dirk Werner and Wolf Henzler were third in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, clinching the manufacturer championship for Porsche.

The Audi R15 TDI of McNish and Capello was the prototype winner in the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge. The second Flying Lizard Porsche of Seth Neiman, Johannes van Overbeek and Darren Law was the GT winner.

Porsche captured the manufacturer season championship in the environmentally based efficiency competition.

The final race will be the four-hour Monterey Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. on Saturday, October 10.

Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta:
RESULTS:
1. (2) Stephane Sarrazin, France; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Peugeot 908 HDI FAP (1, P1), 184.
2. (1) Pedro Lamy, Lisbon Portugal; Nicolas Minassian, England; Peugeot 908 HDI FAP (2, P1), 184.
3. (3) Allan McNish, Scotland; Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Audi R15 TDI (3, P1), 184.
...
7. (28) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Lola B09 86 Mazda (7, P2*), 177.
8. (22) Jaime Melo, Brazil; Pierre Kaffer, Germany; Mika Salo, Finland; Ferrari F430 GT (1, GT2), 170.
9. (16) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Dirk Mueller, Germany; Jorg Muller, Germany; BMW E92 M3 (2, GT2), 169.
10. (21) Wolf Henzler, Germany; Dirk Werner, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (3, GT2), 169.
1...
13. (8) Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Lola B09 86 Mazda (1, P2), 168.
...
21. (11) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 139.
Etc.